Missions are the center of Quasimorph’s risk-and-reward loop. A contract is not just a destination and a difficulty number. It is a promise about what must be carried into a dangerous space, what can be extracted, how much damage the crew can tolerate, and which faction or ship upgrade the result supports. The Steam base game asks you to make that decision before the loading screen, when changing a tool is cheap.
Choose the job
Read objective, floors, sides, difficulty presentation, and faction context before thinking about optional loot.
Pack for failure
Carry treatment, ammunition, a repair answer, and an exit plan that still works after a wound.
Extract on purpose
Leaving with the objective and a smaller haul is often better than turning a completed contract into a total loss.
Read the mission panel
Start with the contract’s purpose. A retrieval job, a destruction job, a defense situation, and a route that asks you to descend do not reward the same equipment or pace. A mission with several floors needs a stronger repair and treatment plan than a short visit. A contract that changes which factions can attack you needs a formation that can respond to contact from more than one direction.
Use the difficulty display as a comparison tool, not as a guarantee. The official 1.0.1 update reworked mission difficulty presentation and the skull logic so players could compare missions more clearly. That means an old screenshot or community ranking may not match the current screen. Read the current tooltip and compare the mission to one your crew has already completed before taking a bigger step.
Prepare the crew and loadout
Preparation should answer four questions: who can complete the objective, who can carry the recovery load, what happens when the primary weapon fails, and how the crew leaves after a wound? Give each operative a role without making the team depend on a single irreplaceable item. A carrier who cannot survive a close room is not a carrier; a heavy weapon that leaves no room for treatment is not a complete answer.
Weight and durability turn the inventory into a mission decision. Pack tools that solve the likely obstacle, not every possible obstacle. A repairable secondary, a suitable ammunition type, and one reliable treatment item often provide more value than a collection of fragile specialist tools. If you are testing a new implant or pact, choose a contract where an early evacuation does not erase the whole campaign plan.
Set an objective hierarchy
Write the run in three layers. The first is mandatory: the contract objective and the route home. The second is protective: a safe tile, a useful station, a treatment resource, or a way to open the next section. The third is optional: extra corpses, containers, and risky side rooms. If the crew becomes injured or the meter rises, remove layer three first. If the objective is secure but the route home is blocked, layer two becomes the whole mission.
This hierarchy prevents loot from changing the goal halfway through a run. Before opening a container, ask whether its contents can be carried and whether the next room can be cleared with the remaining ammunition. If the answer is uncertain, mark the location and return after the objective. The best loot is loot that reaches the ship.
Mission choice also controls the information you gain. A manageable contract lets you learn an objective type, enemy group, or floor pattern without risking the campaign’s most important equipment. Treat the first attempt at an unfamiliar job as a scouting run: bring a dependable but replaceable loadout, note where the objective appears, and leave when the route becomes unclear. On the next attempt, pack for the observed obstacle rather than for every hypothetical threat. This turns a failed or partial contract into a useful map of decisions instead of a reason to abandon the campaign.
Manage multi-floor risk
Every transition is a chance to rest, inspect, and decide whether the next floor is justified. Check the operative with the lowest effective health, the condition of primary tools, and the treatment reserve. If a floor has a new faction, environment, or objective type, expect your first turn to be an information turn. Do not spend the last movement action before you know where the exit and threats are.
Mission time also changes the strategic picture. The 1.0 notes describe contracts, factions, a Trade Shuttle rework, and story additions, so old guides that treat the map as a fixed loot route need a version label. Use stable principles—secure the objective, preserve a retreat, return value—but verify current rewards, mission names, and UI wording in the live branch.
Green signal
Objective known, crew healthy, primary tool reliable, and the return route has room for one mistake.
Yellow signal
One wound, low ammunition, uncertain map, or heavy loot. Skip optional rooms and reassess at the next safe point.
Red signal
Objective secured but treatment or extraction is failing. Stop chasing rewards and leave with what the ship can keep.
Post-mission recovery
After extraction, separate the haul into immediate use, repair candidates, crafting material, faction trade value, and clutter. Repairing everything is as wasteful as dismantling everything. Keep a backup that makes the next contract safer; turn the rest into the resource the current ship plan needs. Review the mission log and record one repeatable lesson, such as “the second floor needed more ammunition” or “the carrier needed cover.”
The next page, Mission Preparation, turns this overview into a pre-departure checklist. Combine it with Equipment when you need to decide what should occupy limited inventory space. If you are returning after a patch, read Updates and Save Compatibility before using an old route.
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